You know you’re in the hands of a master when John Irving is the captain of the ship. He’s steered us through absurdity in The World According To Garp, taken us past strangely amusing incestuous relationships in Hotel New Hampshire and sailed through childhood wonder in A Prayer For Owen Meany.

In Last Night In Twisted River, Irving is once again in full control of the narrative, never divulging more than he needs to and consistently shaping characters we can’t help but love.

Daniel Baciagalupo, the son of a learned cook, and on his way to becoming a writer, has to escape a logging camp in New Hampshire with his father after a run-in with a surly cop. He then wanders from Boston’s North End to Vermont to Toronto, all familiar places to Irving.

As in most of Irving’s books, the plot isn’t as important as the people involved in it. Ketchum is one of the more likeable of them, a gruff logger who swears to Daniel’s mother that he’ll protect him. Then there’s Daniel’s dad, nicknamed Cookie, an anxious parent with unusual powers of foresight.

Last Night features many of Irving’s hallmarks: older women initiating young boys into sex, Toronto sites making guest appearances (there’s a restaurant based on Rosedale’s Pastis) and bears. Lots of bears.

It wouldn’t be an Irving book without a nice wallop of humour, and that’s where Last Night shines. Irving entertains with the grace of a novelist who knows how to be funny without hitting the reader over the head. 

At 554 pages Last Night isn’t a bit too long.

Write Books at susanc@nowtoronto.com